Tax Reform

The following is a guest post by Dan Way of the John Locke Foundation: A $470-million surge in April tax collections could push the state budget surplus to more than $700 million. Barry Boardman, chief economist for the General Assembly’s nonpartisan Fiscal Research Division, in a Monday, May 6, email alerted legislative leaders of both […]

North Carolina collected $400.2 million more in revenue than forecast at the end of the 2017-18 Fiscal Year as “a steadily growing economy produced yet another fiscal surplus,” according to a new report from the state’s nonpartisan Fiscal Research Division. The state collected $176.1 million more in individual income tax than it forecast and $63.2 […]

Families and businesses in North Carolina continued to see promising gains from the 2018 state legislative session as lawmakers remained committed to higher salaries for educators and state employees, increased investments in public schools and a successful pro-growth jobs agenda. The accomplishments mark another year of promises kept by the Republican-led General Assembly to deliver […]

While most state government watchers were focused on a last-minute legislation at the General Assembly, some good news came out of the Office of the State Controller. The General Fund Monthly Financial Report reported that when compared to the prior year – through May 31st — net tax and non-tax revenues were up $834.9 million, […]

Since 2010, when voters put Republicans in charge of most state governments across the United States, North Carolina became one of about a half-dozen states where conservative reformers have frequently — and sometimes spectacularly — faced off with progressives in ways that have attracted significant national attention. In 2011, the new GOP-majority General Assembly defeated […]

Employment figures released earlier this week by the state Department of Commerce show that the number of people employed in North Carolina increased by a total of 85,879 throughout 2017, while the number of people unemployed decreased by 20,263 over the same year-long period. The employment growth data follows a positive revenue outlook released by the […]

Fraud prevention laws recently enacted by the North Carolina General Assembly are guarding against identity theft and protecting millions in state revenue from scammers this tax season. The state Department of Revenue (DOR) attributed an 18% uptick in cases of identified fraud and a 20% uptick in savings for the 2016-2017 Fiscal Year to the […]

The Republicans have enjoyed majorities in both bodies of the General Assembly for nearly seven years now, and pretty soon Phil Berger and Tim Moore will be asking for two more. This is an appropriate time to assess their performance on the economy. Even under the Perdue and Cooper governorships, policy outputs were shaped greatly […]

Hundreds of thousands of hardworking North Carolinians will no longer pay any state income tax by 2019, thanks to several rounds of tax relief provided by the legislature’s Republican majority. A recent memo from the head economist at the non-partisan Fiscal Research Division notes that “of the nearly 4 million tax returns anticipated for tax […]

Planning your summer vacation and looking for some light beach reading? Joseph Coletti over at the John Locke Foundation has you covered with a comprehensive analysis of this year’s state budget: A New State Budget Based On Time-Tested Principles In his 1985 address to the North Carolina Foundation for Research and Economic Education (NC FREE), […]